Wishing Only Wounds The Heart 1/2

[deeperwonderment]

Title: Wishing Only Wounds The Heart
Author: shadowcat
Rating: PG-13
Word Count: 13,115
Fandom: The Fast and Furious
Characters/Pairings: Mia Toretto
Challenge: Written for smallfandombang
Summary: When the rest of her family fled south of the border, Mia was left behind where she would be safe. However, Mia has no interest in being safe and out from the shadow of her older brother, Mia becomes a well-known street racer. So what happens when the man that tore her life apart, and the sister she always trusted both decide to come back into her life?
Disclaimer: I don't own the movies or Mia.
Author's Notes: I have always thought that Mia could be a badass in her own right and that she wouldn't have liked being left behind. Thank you so very much to queenmidalah for making me such awesome art for this.






It had never been part of Mia’s plans to be left behind by her family when they fled the country to get away from the police. In fact, she had assumed that she would be going with them after everything that happened. She waited at the hospital for Letty to be questioned and treated, and when she was released, Mia was there to pick her up. The plan was to stop at the house so that Letty could pack a bag and then they could get on the road to wherever Dom was hiding. Mia already had a bag packed, so it wouldn’t take the two young women all that long to follow him. She had made all of the extra preparations that she thought they needed.

When Letty suggested that they relax for a little while and have a few beers, Mia figured that it would be a good idea. It would make sure that there were no police on their tale if they waited to leave the area for a few more hours. They had a long road ahead of them and if they could avoid having a tail, it would be all the better for everyone involved.

It didn’t occur to Mia to be suspicious about any of this. She was with Letty and she had no reason not to trust the woman that had been such a staple in her life for as long as she could remember.

She wasn’t suspicious until she woke up the next morning with the worst headache she had ever suffered from in her life. Not even a tequila hangover had ever come this close to making her wish she was dead. She lay in the bed for awhile until she realized that she didn’t hear any other kinds of sounds in the house. At the very least, Letty should be making whatever finishing touches she thought they needed before they left and she should be hearing all of that.

She quickly sat up. “Letty? Hey, Letty!”

Even as she pressed past the headache, she knew that there wasn’t going to be an answer.

She scrambled off of the bed as fast as she could make herself move and hurried down the stairs. When she couldn’t find Letty in the house, she slammed out of the door and hurried into the garage.

It was the black car that told her that her family had left without her. The black car that Dom had been working on with her to turn into her own racer. If they had been planning on her joining them wherever they were, Dom would have arranged for someone to drive the car so all she would need to do was to get Letty and follow them.

She saw the envelope beneath the wiper blade and she just stared at it for a long time, unable to make herself reach for it and therefore make the abandonment final. Finally, though, there was nothing she could do but reach for the envelope.

The first thing she pulled out of the envelope was a short note from Letty apologizing for drugging her beer. She hadn’t wanted to do it, but it seemed the best way to keep her safe and from trying to follow when they left. It was the last line of Letty’s note that made Mia want to scream at her.

It’s for your own good, girl. You don’t need this rep. – L.

Mia shook her head slowly. She couldn’t believe that Letty had not only drugged her, but that she had allowed the others to leave her behind. It just wasn’t something she had expected from Letty. She would have expected Letty to stand up for her, to make sure that she was treated like someone who was part of the family and had her own mind.

Letty had always come through with that in the past.

Not this time, though.

Mia swallowed, trying to push down the betrayal that she was feeling towards Letty at the moment. She turned, walking away from the car that she loved so much. She walked past her usual car and then back into the house. It wasn’t until she went back up to her bedroom that she allowed her legs to collapse beneath her.

She stared at the envelope for a long time before pulling out the letter from her brother. It seemed long to her, and that surprised her. She wouldn’t have thought Dom had the patience to sit and write so much. But no, all of the handwriting was Dom’s. She would be able to recognize it anywhere.

She curled her legs beneath her on the bed and took a deep breath as she started to read.

Mia,

I can only imagine what you’re thinking right now and all I can do is hope that one day you’ll understand and forgive me for this.

I know you and right now, you’re wondering how many languages you can scream at me in. Maybe one day you’ll get that chance, but neither of us should bank on that happening. You and I both know that the cops will never stop hunting me and I’ll do anything to avoid going back to jail. Unfortunately, that means that I have to go somewhere that they won’t find me.

By now, you know that that buster let me go. I don’t know why he let me go, but you need to be careful and stay away from him. He might try to use you again to get to me and I don’t relish the idea of having to break you out of jail because you shot the punk. He’s a cop, Mia, and no matter how much he deserves it, you just can’t shoot a cop.

I’m not doing this to punish you for the buster or because I don’t love or trust you, so please, don’t think that. You’re going to be beating yourself up over that buster for a long time and I wish I could stop you from doing that. You loved him and he used you. That’s not your fault. He had all of us fooled and I thought he really was the right kind of guy for you. I thought he’d keep you safe, and for that I’m sorry. I should have taken care of you better.

Which brings me to this letter.

The house is taken care of. That’s never been something that we’ve had to worry about. The estate from Mom has always made sure of that. The lease on the garage and the café is paid up, as well. If you’re as smart as I know you are, you’ll hire someone to help you run the place now that you own it on paper. The house is also in your name, but Harry is also the trustee in case anyone gives you any hassle. I don’t expect there to be trouble, but you never know. And we both know that we can trust Harry with our lives. It’s not his fault about the buster. Sometimes, you have to work with people that you would rather not and that time it was Harry over the barrel.

I never wanted this kind of life for you, Mia. You’re my baby sister and I’m supposed to keep you safe and protected from everything. You are more important to me than anything else in this world and that’s why I have to leave you behind in LA. You’ve got school and you have the chance to really make something of yourself. I know how much you want to be a doctor and me leaving is going to make sure that you can do that. The cops might hassle you a few times, but once they realize that you truthfully have no idea where we’re at, then they’ll leave you alone so you can live your life.

And you will live your life, Mia. If nothing else, you’re a survivor and just as stubborn as I am. It’s a Toretto trait.

I love you, Mia. I know that you don’t think that right now as you’re reading this, but it’s true and you need to believe that. It’s because I love you so much that I can do this.

Stay out of trouble and I’ll call you whenever we reach wherever we might be going. I honestly don’t know where that might be, yet. Away from LA is all I know because it’s just too hot there for us.

Love,
Dom

Mia re-read the letter a few times before she finally dropped it on the bed and buried her face in her hands. Her family had left her behind and Dom was telling her all about how he needed to protect her and she needed to be kept safe. She couldn’t help the tears that filled her eyes. Dom had always been there and now he had left her.

For about the thousandth time, she cursed the fact that she had ever met Brian.

Logically, she knew that if it hadn’t been Brian, then it would have been some other cop that came after her brother – it was just that she had had the bad luck to fall in love with this one. It could have easily been some other cop who didn’t give a damn if people lived or died so long as he got his collar. They had been lucky that Brian wasn’t like that and had helped rescue Vince after he was shot and couldn’t get away from the truck he was attempting to hijack.

Quick on the heels of the sadness she felt about being left behind came a white hot anger. It was an anger that came close to how she had felt when she learned the truth about Brian. Only now that anger was directed at her brother.

Once again, Dom was managing her life and giving her no real say in the matter. He had left her behind because he decided it was the safest thing for her and hadn’t bothered to consult her about it at all.

Typical.

It was completely unsurprising that Dom decided that he could still arrange her life as he saw fit just because he was her older brother. One of these days he was going to have to learn that she had her own mind and she could make her own plans about her life without him needing to interfere. Being her big brother didn’t give him the right to decide what she would and wouldn’t do.

One of these days.

Mia lifted her head from her hands and stared at the letter on the bed for a long moment.

Dom and the others were gone. By this time, they were probably out of the state – if not the country. It wasn’t like he could pull strings about what she did with her life when he wasn’t even here. It wasn’t like he would ever know what she was doing with her time since he had left her behind. It wasn’t like he could do anything but make a disapproving face when he was to find out that she had started making different decisions than what he had planned for her to do.

It wasn’t like he could do anything to actually stop her from doing what she wanted to do. He was the one that had left her behind and she had spent a great deal of time always doing what he and the family they created expected her to do because she was the baby. Hell, even Jesse had treated her like the helpless baby sister.

Why shouldn’t she use this as an opportunity to take charge of her own life? For so long she had been seen only as Dominic Toretto’s Little Sister, and that was why she became interesting to people outside the family. They all wanted to use her to get close to Dom. They saw her as Dom’s sister first and as Mia second. She’s had enough of that.

It was long past time for her to be recognized as her own person. It was time to see what Mia Toretto was made of.



“No. Absolutely not.”

“Oh, Harry, come on! You know that I know my way around an engine every bit as much as any of the guys that have worked for you,” Mia argued. “Hell, I’m a much better driver than most of the guys that do runs for any store and you know I’m good for whatever happens. And, once the people in the know hear that a Toretto is on the circuit again and she’s a driver for you, your business will double or triple. You’ll be making every bit as much money as you were when Dom was running for you – if not more.”

“Which will not do me a damned bit of good when your brother kills me for endangering you,” Harry said as he shook his head. “I can’t make money or cash in on the races if I’m dead.”

“How is he going to know when he’s not even here?”

“Oh you’re almost as funny as Vince,” Harry said dryly. “How does Dom know anything when he’s not seen? Your brother always knows what’s happening.”

“Not this time,” Mia pointed out. “He left the country, Harry. He put everything in my name with you as a joint trustee. He doesn’t expect to be back anytime soon,”

“I would rather that he not come back here with the sole purpose of killing me. I can think of less painful ways for me to commit suicide.”

Mia gave him a look and shook her head. “Harry, you and I both know that’s not going to happen. He left me. He got Letty to drug me so I didn’t wake up and follow them.”

“So this is what, revenge?” He frowned. “I’m sorry Mia mine. I’m not going to be the way you get yourself killed to make Dominic regret leaving you behind.”

“Harry, this isn’t about Dom. For once, it’s about me. It’s about me being Mia and not always being known as Dominic Toretto’s little sister and an easy way to get close to him.”

Harry winced. “I’m sorry about Brian, Mia,” he said gently. “When I was forced by the cops to hire him I never expected that you would get caught in the middle and get hurt by him.”

“It wasn’t your fault. You had no choice but to do what they wanted you to do or you could have lost everything. Dom wouldn’t have wanted that to happen to you.” Mia shrugged. “When he realized that he couldn’t get to Dom any other way, then I was the logical choice.”

“Logical doesn’t make it right.” Harry frowned. “If he ever shows his face in here again –“

“You’ll leave him alone because you are not getting into trouble over some buster breaking my heart.” Mia cut him off. “It happened and we move on.” She gave him a small smile. “But I appreciate the sentiment.”

The older man sighed. “Tell me why you want to do this, really, Mia.”

“Because I’ve always wanted to,” she admitted. “I can race a car or a bike as well as everyone else in the family – sometimes better. Both Dom and Letty taught me the ins and outs of the circuit because they both thought I would need to know about it. Between them and Leon I know more about engines and how to drive any kind of vehicle than most people can ever hope to. Vince taught me the moves that the others didn’t teach me and he and Dom and Letty made sure I knew how to fight if it came down to it.” She looked him in the eye. “And I can outdrive any other delivery guy in the entire city.”

“That’s extortion, Mia.”

“How do you figure? I didn’t say anything to that affect.”

“No, but I’ve known you since you were tiny. You’re thinking that if I don’t hire you and sponsor you, then any of my competitors would jump at having a Toretto driving for them.”

“You brought it up, not me.”

“You didn’t bring it up because you’re not as tactless as the rest of your family,” he said dryly. “Dom would have flat out said that if I didn’t let him drive for me he would go to someone else and then your daddy’s ghost would have haunted me the rest of my life if anything happened.”

“I didn’t know you were superstitious.”

“When it comes to you kids, I am. Your dad was my best friend for many years and he’d never forgive me if you got hurt driving or racing.”

“He’d be more forgiving of you hiring me than he would be of someone else hiring me and it got me hurt.” She said honestly.

Harry sighed, shaking his head. “I know when I’m out maneuvered. You have a deal, Mia, but only if you do exactly what I say and when I say it. You’re not to drive any race until I inspect your parts and your competition. And there will be no dropping out of school for you. You’ll finish college like your family wants you to do. You’ll run your garage and diner during the week and work out of here on weekends. To make sure you have plenty of time for your schoolwork and exams, we’ll find someone to assist you at the garage. The minute, no, the second that I think you’re stretching yourself too thin and your schoolwork or your safety might suffer for it, then you’re sidelined until I say otherwise.”

Mia thought for a moment and she nodded. “That sounds fair.” She gave him a bright smile. “You won’t regret this, Harry.”

“Just keep your brother from killing me when he finds out about this deal.” Harry shook his head. “Though, truthfully, he should have really known better. You’re a Toretto and he couldn’t keep you off the streets forever. Racing is in your blood. It always has been.”



The next few months were busy ones for Mia, but she relished in the work.

During the day, she went to classes and made sure to keep her grades up and she was careful not to let the performance and level of her schoolwork slip. She wasn’t about to give Harry any reason to regret agreeing to let her run for him. The garage was doing steady business – and she found herself and her assistant working on vehicles that she had once seen race against her brother.

The irony of the situation was not lost on her. It was kind of amusing, really.

She didn’t think that Dom or Letty would find the situation quite as amusing as she was – especially if they knew what she was working towards. Not that she would have stopped if they did. Finally, finally she was taking charge and doing something that she wanted to do for once. With the exception of Harry, there was no one around to tell her that it was too dangerous or that it wasn’t the kind of life that was for her. There was no one to discourage her from doing what she really wanted to do.

It was kind of a heady feeling, if she were to be honest. She liked feeling like she was finally in charge of her own destiny. She loved her family and adopted family dearly, but there had been times where they were a bit overbearing when it came to her and she felt smothered.

She hadn't realized how smothered she felt until she had decided to go to Harry and talk to him about what she wanted to do. In fact, she hadn't realized how much she wanted to do it until it was all she had left. With no one being there to stop her, she blossomed in the world of parts and street racing.

It was only after her first race that people stopped referring to her as Dominic Toretto’s baby sister and started using her own name.

She’d never forget that first race. She and Harry had just finished installing the extra parts that evening and Mia had been thrilled with how good her car sounded. With the new paint job to go with everything else that had changed, Mia was definitely ready to start the new life she had been working hard towards ever since her family had left her behind.

She saw surprise in more than one face when she pulled up into the staging area. Already people were taking bets on cars and drivers and the area was beginning to get crowded. She parked her car and let it idle there for a few moments before she turned off the motor and stepped gracefully out of the car.
“Holy shit,” one of the guys said when he got a good look at her. “It’s Baby Toretto!”

Mia was already less than impressed with this guy, so when he made his way over to her, she found that it was hard to keep a pleasant expression on her face.

“Baby Toretto,” the guy greeted her. Now that he was closer, she recognized him as someone that Dom had talked about once or twice. His name was Miguel something. “Man, baby, you look good. What are you doing here? I thought your family high-tailed it out of town with so much bacon being interested in them.”

“The name is Mia, not Baby,” Mia said calmly as she leaned against her car. “And not Baby Toretto.”

“What are you doing here, Mia? Where’s Dominic? I thought you guys left for freer pastures.”

She shrugged, watching him out of the corner of her eye. “I live here. I never went anywhere else.”

“So, they left you behind to cover their escape?” The guy went on. “Man, that sucks, Mia. I never thought your brother was a coward.”

“He’s not.”

“He left you behind to deal with the heat while he ran with his tail between his legs. The great Dominic Toretto, Coward.”

Mia straightened up and focused all of her attention on the guy in front of her. “My brother isn’t a coward.” Mia’s voice had turned completely flat. “He only left me behind because he thought it would be safer for me that way.”

“Safer for you left behind without any protection?” He said looking her up and down. “That’s not protecting you; that’s hanging you out to dry.”

“I have all of the protection I need, Miguel.” Her voice was definitely a clear warning that he shouldn’t push that topic any further.

“I don’t know about that, Mia,” he said as he moved closer to her. “Big brothers are gone. Big sister is gone. Boyfriend turned out to be a cop and he got chased out.” He smiled the kind of smile that he thought was a charming one. “I could fix that for you.”

“Oh you could, could you?” The look in Mia’s eyes and the sound of her voice dropping to a purr should have had him on his guard, but he was too focused in looking her body up and down again as he stepped into her personal space. “And just how would you do that, Miguel?”

“You need a strong man to stand up for you and keep you warm at night, Mia. I can show you a much better time than some buster undercover cop did.”

Something flared in Mia’s eyes, but she gave Miguel a pleasant smile. “Are you willing to put your money where your mouth is, Miguel?”

For the first time, Miguel didn’t look as confident as he had since he had approached Mia. “What do you mean?”

“A small wager,” she said with a grin that looked every bit like her older brother’s. “In addition to the money, if you win, you get a chance to show me if the merchandise is worth all of the hype.” She heard a low chorus of snickers and other comments from the group that had gathered around them.

Miguel looked far too amused by this. It really was too bad that she already knew what machinery his car had under the hood. If she had been in the mood for playing fair with this egocentric ass, she never would have offered him the wager.

“And if you win? What happens if you win the race – not that you will. Racing takes more than sharing the name of one of the greatest street racers ever known in L.A.”

Oh, now Dom was the greatest racer ever known when a few moments ago this guy had been calling him a coward.

“If I win, you owe me a favor.”

“A favor?”

“That’s right, Miguel, a favor. At some point in the future, I get to call on you for a favor. No questions asked.” She had definitely spent a lot of time around Dom and the others when they were making deals and earning allies.

“You’re so nice that it almost breaks my heart to agree to a sure win for me, Mia,” he said with a smile. “You have yourself a deal, and just remember, I like my girls in red.”

“I’m sure that you do,” she said as she shook his hand.

If it hadn’t been for the way he talked about Dom and the way he had assumed she didn’t know a damn thing, Mia might almost have felt bad about how easy this money and this favor was going to be hers.

Almost.

“He’s an idiot,” Sharyn, a friend of Mia’s from school and her neighborhood, murmured when Mia got into the car. “You can see it in his eyes that he thinks this is going to be an easy win for him.”

“That will be his second mistake,” Mia responded quietly as she watched Miguel getting jibes from his friends about stealing Baby Toretto’s money like this. “His first was in talking shit about Dom.”

Sharyn nodded. “Yeah, I thought you were going to hit him for sure.”

“Better to take his money and have him owing me a favor at a later date.” Mia flashed a grin at her friend. “Besides, I had to do something to keep you from getting arrested before the night has even started.”

Sharyn shook her head. “One time. It was one time and you are never going to let me live that down, are you?”

“Probably not,” Mia laughed. “It was definitely something that I will always remember. I’m not sure that I have ever seen Harry turn that many colors of red since my brother was working for him.”

Sharyn shrugged. “Not my fault that I inherited Uncle Harry’s temper. The guy tried to cop a feel and I reacted with my fist.”

“Better than your knife, though,” Mia pointed out. “I don’t think that even Harry could have sprung you if you had stabbed the asshole.”

Sharyn nodded and opened her door. “Okay, girl, I’ll wait for you at the other end.”

Mia’s eyes widened. “You’re not riding with me? You always ride shotgun.”

“Not this time, girly. This time is about family honor – whether you think it or not. Miguel insulted your family and called your brother a coward. You should be alone in the car when you make him eat your exhaust. I’ll meet you at the finish line.” Sharyn kissed Mia’s cheek and got out of the car.

Mia watched her friend disappear into the crowd before she started up her car and drove to the staging line. Her race wasn’t the first one that was being run – nor the first one that Miguel was participating in. Being able to watch the first few runs let her take notes on how Miguel drove and what she thought his weak spots might be.

When she caught something that no one else did, Mia had to fight back a grin. From the way his car jerked each time it went into a higher gear, Mia could tell there was a weak spot somewhere in his transmission. The jerking that the car did each time it moved from third to fourth cost Miguel a few hundredths of a second.

That was a weak point that Mia knew she could capitalize on quite easily. Her transmission had been built by her and Dom, and it had been carefully fine tuned by herself and Harry earlier in the day. Her car was in prime condition – something that Miguel could not claim when it came to his car.

After a period of time, it was Mia’s turn and she was calm as she drove up to her place at the staging line. She looked over at Miguel only once, but it was enough to see that he was making a fool out of himself about racing her. She had seen guys who were completely full of themselves, but this was the first time she had been in a race with one of them.
Okay, this was the first time she had been in a race on purpose with one of them. She had been messing with guys like this all of her life.

The race started and at that moment, Mia lost herself in the world that was her and the car.

From far away, she heard her competitor’s car, but she was too disciplined to keep checking to see where he was. Her brother had told her that when you’re behind the wheel of a good car, you can ignore everything outside of it. She shifted gears and pressed the gas and let the car drive itself. She was the driver, but she knew how to let the car perform like it was built.

It took her a few seconds to realize that the race was over and she had won.

Sharyn was laughing as she opened Mia’s door and pulling her out of the car.

“You won, Mia! You kicked his ass!”

Mia couldn’t stop the grin that crossed her face as she hugged Sharyn back and the surrouding sounds finally crashed back into her consciouness. There was a lot of shouting and celebrating that she had phased out of her senses while she was behind the wheel of the car. It was a lot louder than it had been before the race.

Miguel walked up to her, shaking his head. “You’re almost as good as your big brother, Mia Toretto,” he said as he handed her a roll of bills. “I haven’t seen a turn like that since the one he made the last time we rolled at Race Wars.”

Mia grinned at him. “I learned a lot from my brother, Miguel. I also know several things that he never got the chance to teach me. A girl can learn all kinds of things if she pays attention to what’s happening around her.”

“I can’t wait to see what kind of racer you turn out to be when you grow up, Mia,” Miguel said with a small smirk. “I’ll be keeping my eyes on you.”

“Yeah but not too close or my Uncle Harry will cut them out of your head,” Sharyn supplied, coming to stand at Mia’s side. “He has a real big problem with the wrong type of guys messing around with his family.”

“I am the perfect example of a gentleman,” Miguel protested. “I treat every girl I’m with like a precious gift.”

“Yeah, a gift that you can get your fingers cut off for trying to unwrap too early,” Sharyn fired back.

Mia laughed. “Come on, Sharyn, let’s go tell Harry about how the car performed.” She looked at Miguel and her eyes were serious. “You’ll be hearing from me, Miguel.”

“I can only hope.”

“Oh you wish,” Sharyn muttered as she and Mia moved through the crowd.



Mia was just getting home from Harry’s on a Friday night when she saw a light on in her garage. She knew that she hadn’t left the light on this morning before class – and Sharyn wasn’t due to come over and help her work on things until the next morning. She left her books and her bag in the car, but she grabbed the revolver that Harry had insisted she carry after there had been a run of hold-ups on delivery drivers in the area. Anyone that tried to rob her was going to be in for a rude awakening.

She slowly approached one of the windows and then frowned. She recognized that silhouette and it took everything she had to walk into the garage calmly.

“Do you have a permit for that, Mia?”

“Is it any of your business?”

“Actually, it really is.”

She glared. “Then yes, Officer O’Connor, I have both a carry permit and a carry and conceal permit,” she bit out. “A girl can’t be too careful nowadays.”

“I didn’t realize that going to school and running a diner had become such a dangerous line of work to be in.”

“Well, you know, things change. This used to be a real safe neighborhood once upon a time. Then some buster came in and wrecked the family that kept everything mostly safe here and so the ones he left behind to clean up his fucking mess have had to adapt to keeping things clean on their own.”

Brian sighed and shook his head as he leaned against her workbench. “Do you know where they are, Mia?”

“No.”

The look he gave her was full of disbelief. “Mia.”

“I don’t know where they are, O’Connor. Thanks to you, they left in the middle of the night without me.”

“You’re joking.”

She laughed humorlessly. “No, I’m not. I waited around for Letty to be well enough to leave the hospital. Went to sleep one night and woke up to find my entire family gone.” She turned her back to him and went to put one of the cars between them so she didn’t do something stupid like punch him. “Thank you for that, by the way.”

“I never meant to hurt you.”

“Bullshit. The minute you started dating me to get close to Dom you knew that I was going to end up getting hurt and you didn’t give a damn. Your collar was too damn important than the girl you were screwing.”

Brian had the grace to flinch. “I didn’t use you just to get closer to Dom, Mia. I really did care about you.”

“If that is your way of showing someone that you care about them, then I’m glad that it only cost me my family.” She slammed the door shut on the car. “I mean, it could have cost me so much worse like my life or my freedom.” The look she turned on him was full of anger. “It came close enough to costing my soul, as it was.”

“Ok, yes, at first you were the easiest way to find an in with Dom and his plans,” he admitted. What point was there in lying nay further to her when he had already lied so much?

“At least you’re finally coming clean to what I learned awhile ago.”

“That’s how it was at first, Mia,” Brian said quietly. “All too soon, though, you became more important to me than a tool. I started looking for a way that I could do my job without having to put you in the middle.”

Mia scoffed and shook her head. “Apparently your desire for glory overwhelmed you.”

“That’s not fair, Mia.” Even as he said it, Brian knew those were the wrong words to say.

“Fair? You ruin my life and take everything I’ve ever known away from me and you have the gall to talk to me about being fair?”

“Mia.”

“No. Fuck you and your fucking badge, O’Connor. You destroyed my family and caused them to have to find someplace else to go. You took everything from me and you’re not taking anything else from me.” She drew in a breath and curled her hand tightly over the wrench she had picked up in an effort not to throw it at him. “I cared about you and I trusted you! Don’t you understand how big that was? I trusted someone that wasn’t in the neighborhood and wasn’t on the circuit. I let down my guard and I let you into our family. Dom let you get close because he trusted you because I trusted you. You made him believe that you cared about me and that made him take a chance with you. He trusted you to have his back and to be good to me and it turns out that you were a cop that was using me to get to him!”

Brian looked from her face to the wrench in her hand and then back to her face. “You can throw it at me if it will make you feel better.”

She snorted and shook her head. “So you can arrest me for assaulting an officer in hopes of luring my brother back to town to help me? I don’t think so. I’m not that naïve any longer.”

He gave her a shocked look. “Do you really think that I would do that to you, Mia?” He could hear the hurt in his own voice.

“Why shouldn’t I? After all, last time you slept with me and pretended to care about me to try to arrest him. Arresting me on a trumped up charge would be a lot simpler for you than that.”

“I guess I deserve that opinion you have of me.”

“You guess?” She shook her head. “God, you really are full of yourself, aren’t you.” It wasn’t really a question and she didn’t give him a chance to answer her. “You earned my opinion of you, O’Connor. No one but you forced me to think any of this about you. Your own actions were more effective than anyone’s words ever could have been.”

“Mia, I’m sorry. I didn’t mean for you to get so –"

“Just get out of here before I do something that Letty would want to kick my ass for. There’s nothing left for you here. Dom is gone, out of your reach, and I might as well be, too.” She took a deep breath. “You’re not welcome here or at the café and if I were you, I wouldn’t show your face at Harry’s at any point in the future, either.” She turned her back on him and started for the door to the garage. “Show up on my property again and I’ll file harassment charges against you.”





Part Two